12 U.S.C. § 5003 — General provisions governing substitute checks

A person^* may deposit, present, or send for collection or return a substitute check^* without an agreement with the recipient, so long as a bank^* has made the warranties in section 5004 of this title with respect to such substitute check^*.

A substitute check shall be the legal equivalent of the original check for all purposes, including any provision of any Federal or State^* law, and for all persons if the substitute check—

A bank shall ensure that the substitute check for which the bank is the reconverting bank^* bears all endorsements applied by parties that previously handled the check (whether in electronic form or in the form of the original paper check or a substitute check) for forward collection^* or return.

A bank shall identify itself as a reconverting bank on any substitute check for which the bank is a reconverting bank so as to preserve any previous reconverting bank identifications in conformance with generally applicable industry standards.

A substitute check that is the legal equivalent of the original check under subsection (b) shall be subject to any provision, including any provision relating to the protection of customers, of part 229 of title 12 of the Code of Federal Regulations, the Uniform Commercial Code^*, and any other applicable Federal or State law as if such substitute check were the original check, to the extent such provision of law is not inconsistent with this chapter.